Is the sun setting on the Australian dream?Expats are choosing to move from Oz to the UK, Europe and New Zealand. But why?

By Hannah Ewens10:06AM BST 15 Jul 2015It’s well known that the British in particular love moving to Australia for the good weather, growing economy and cheaper cost of living. But that doesn’t mean expats want to stay for the long haul.

A recent survey from removals company MoveHub (movehub.com) showed that for every one of their customers from across the globe who moves to Australia, three are leaving. The countries they’re leaving for in greatest number are the UK, New Zealand and other European countries.

The same survey showed that the number of people the company had leaving Australia for the UK increased in the past year from 240 in 2014 to 441 in 2015.

It’s not just MoveHub that noticed this - it’s part of a wider movement. The latest International Passenger Survey from the Office of National Statistics shows that since 1980 the general trend has been an increase in Britons who had once moved to Australia returning to the UK. And according to the most recent data released for 2013, the number is the highest it’s been since 2001.

Why is this happening now? The likelihood is that it is many different factors in play - economic, emotional and related to health.

A look at the popular forum pomsinoz.com shows that one of the busiest categories is “Moving Back to the UK”. Britons share stories of why they long to return - common reasons include finding Australia boring, feeling like they haven’t properly managed to settle despite having spent many years there, and the cost of living increasing.

"Enough is enough," posted user jb39, about to return to the UK after nearly six years in Australia. "Had enough of whinging Aussies, people who don't wear shoes or shirts in supermarkets, crap roads, crap pubs, expensive ... everything. This country is 30 years behind the rest of the world."

User Hotrod warned a British user thinking of moving to Australia of what to expect. "You may feel that you will never belong in Australia. Missing family, lack of choice (food, cars, holidays, clothes, etc), the cost of living. It isn't Britain with sun. It can be perceived as being behind the times."

User H2H3 added to this list. "It's just not Christmas in the sun - mulled wine and turkey with frosty mornings beats Christmas on the beach. To me, old friends are so important to have around - the ones you grew up with who really know you."

Of the cost of living, British expat writer and blogger Russell Ward, 40, who has lived in Australia for nine years (insearchofalifelessordinary.com) said: "I know of a few groups of people who changed their minds and opted for more affordable countries such as Canada.”

• The expat boom turns into a boomerang as 33 per cent end up coming back

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Another recent Movehub survey revealed that the once-cheap Australia now has the sixth highest cost of living in the world, outranking the UK by four places.

Jobs, too, are less secure than they once were. After 23 years of growth, including one of the biggest mining booms in Australia's history, plummeting iron ore and coal prices have had a serious impact on Australia's economy recently - and mining towns are paying the price.

Rob Kiernan, 57, who moved from Billericay to Brisbane in 2007 and runs a blog (bobinoz.com) said: “It's simply getting harder and harder to find jobs. The impact of our mining industry's move from boom to pretty much bust over the last couple of years hasn't helped either.

"Many people come here on a two-year visa with a job sponsorship but if those contracts don't last the full term, because the company is struggling, or they are not renewed, then sometimes the only option is to return home.”

This increasingly precarious job situation combined with the rising cost of living has perhaps spurred some expats to leave. Mr Ward added that the high cost is not just affecting people who moved to Australia but more likely “affecting extended families of people who moved here”.

He said: “My own parents own their own house in Hampshire but if they sold it to move to Sydney, it would only afford them a two-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of the city, not a house, and certainly not located anywhere near my family on the Northern Beaches. As a result, they are unable to move here and, with travel and accommodation costs high here, they can only come for a few weeks every few years.

“I also know of two cases where UK-based parents are offering their Australia-located children the deposit to buy a house in the UK so that they can return to be near them, knowing that the reverse (the parents moving out here) is impossible.”

It would also seem then that some of those returning are baby boomers going home to the UK for their retirement to be back with their children and grandchildren.

Professor Roger Burrows and Mary Holmes’ 2011 paper on the push and pull factors Brits face when leaving Australia for the UK revealed British immigrants often felt very homesick and sometimes failed to ‘culturally assimilate’. They found that the choices behind the return were highly emotionalised. The most significant factor, mentioned by 15 per cent of their sample, related to family matters of various sorts - either because of family care responsibilities in Britain or a desire to be back with family members.

From their study of forums, they found that even after a long period of years of living in Australia - as long as 35 years in some examples - a deep lack of feeling of belonging remained with a person. They wanted to re-find this back home.

For many older expats, the Australian life offered a perfect, sunny, laid-back retirement. But it is not that straightforward.

British policy currently states that expat state pension be capped at the amount they would receive per week when they emigrate. This means as living costs increase, expats are left having to make their frozen pension stretch further.

• Frozen pensions force expats to come home

Jim Tilley, director of the International Consortium of British Pensioners, said: “Some expats are having to leave Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa forced by their decreasing UK pension income. Moreover many people in the UK are discouraged from leaving because of their pension being depreciated in many countries overseas.”

The threats posed to expat wellbeing stretch further than this. Tony Whalley, 77, a British expat pensioner living in Australia says he is certain expats are returning to the UK on account of the benefits and care. “Care does not exist for us,” he said.

“My time in Australia is limited on account of my age so when I look at the benefits of Australia such as climate, open spaces, frozen pension, compared with the benefits of a full pension, NHS (no private medical bills), winter fuel allowance (nothing like that here) and a non-existent bus service, why wouldn't I prefer to return to the UK?

“There's also the Australian tax system that taxes my pensions but does not give me any benefits at all. Not one thing is claimable. Zilch.”

The likelihood is that it is a myriad of push and pull factors leading to British expats leaving Oz. It certainly seems that while the Australian dream might not yet be dead, it might not be a happy ever after.

Closet poms give the impression they are displaced persons in Australia and never adapt or evolve. The worst cases need to get back to UK but probably can't afford it.

My own experiences in going back to places you have previously loved is that they are not the same after ten years plus because every person evolves to some degree and may not be the same person they were when they loved and lived in a particular location.

We received hundreds of emails in response to our story about the large numbers of British people giving up on life in Australia. Some readers have been sharing their experiences of leaving - and staying - Down Under.

Despite Australia's booming economy, more than 7,000 British people left the country for good in 2009-10 - the largest emigration recorded in recent memory - according to figures from Australia's immigration department.

The same is happening in the other direction, with more Australians leaving the UK and heading home.

Here are 10 stories from readers who gave up in Australia, and 10 more from those people having too much fun to leave.

Why we quit Australia...I stayed in Perth for 15 years after my parents emigrated there when I was seven. At 24, I came back to England and have been here ever since. The dullness and isolation of living somewhere like Perth can't be explained unless you experience it. There are so many reasons why England is preferable to Australia for a lot of people such as being able to buy groceries past 6pm, local shops and pubs, having Europe on your doorstep, comedy and culture. Even when I am stuck on the M25 it is preferable to driving on dull empty roads at mind numbingly low speeds. This will probably be perceived as "whinging pom" by any Aussies as they can't understand why anybody wouldn't want to be them but it simply isn't for everyone.

Richard White, Hemel Hempstead, UK

Image captionDian Elvin lived in the bush for 13 yearsI moved from Oxfordshire to Canberra with my husband in 1990 after our children had grown up. He had been offered a job there. We later lived in the bush for 13 years. It was a fascinating experience to live in a house we built, with only solar power and rainwater, in an unspoiled area where wild flowers and animals could be studied close up. We both loved it but our families were back in the UK. We were also retired and British state pensions are frozen if you retire in Australia. We returned in 2008 from our wonderful 100 acres of forest in New South Wales to a bungalow in Oxfordshire. No regrets.

Dian M Elvin, Witney, UK

I moved to Australia when the economy was booming in 2002. Initially, I enjoyed the backpacking lifestyle, but when I got permanent residence there, due to my trade, I found that it was a very difficult place to integrate. I didn't miss the UK, but I got fed up of being an outsider and missing out on work because of my accent, so I decided to go back to the UK. Australia is a beautiful country, but at the end of the day you need constant employment and the opportunity to integrate socially and just because you achieved both these things in the UK, it doesn't mean that you definitely will in Australia. To sum up, I found them friendly (especially when you were buying stuff from them) but they don't want to be your friend. Give it a go, by all means, but don't sell your house in the UK until you have given it a couple of years there.

Sean, London

I never really had a sense of belongingChris MorrisWe were lured to Australia to work in a health centre in Victoria with great promises. The health system turned out to be a nightmare of rules and regulations, many flouted by health professionals there - "It's what you do mate". There are some good aspects to it, but many bad. We couldn't stomach it after a year of unkept promises from the employer so returned to work in the good old NHS. We enjoyed our experience of exploring Australia but would not swap it for the UK on a permanent basis.

Trudi Cornish, Bedford, UK

I had been living in Melbourne for almost a year with my then wife, when I received a phone call from my sister to say that our father had been rushed into intensive care. I literally got on the next plane to fly home and three months later, I was still in the UK. He was stabilising but I had no idea if I should go back to Australia or not. I decided to and was only back a week when he'd taken another bad turn so I returned to the UK. He died three days later. On the flight home, I was devastated and could not see how my life would pan out. It did, however, bring a lot of issues to a head - missing my own family and my then wife not wanting children. She left me and I returned to the UK. I have never looked back. I never really had a sense of belonging and I certainly came to the realisation that after losing my father, nothing can replace your loved ones.

Chris Morris, Harrogate, UK

I moved to London in 2004 and had a great job, did lots of travel and had an amazing life-changing experience. After three years I thought "I've done my stint" and moved back to Australia but I never settled back in. I missed the seasons, the food, the cultural attachment to Europe, the weekend breaks and the different languages. In the end I felt Australia was a like a library with a dozen or so books I'd read, and re-read and read again. In London and Europe, I feel like I'm in a library that I'll never get to the bottom of. Australia is a great country, but I feel isolated and frustrated living there.

Justin Knock, London, UK

I wish I could head back to UKBy Sarah PasseyOrange, Australia

I can fully understand why Brits are leaving Australia and wish I could be one of them. My family emigrated in 2005 with three young children. Although my husband's job in the Australian healthcare service allows him a much better quality of life than the NHS, for the rest of us life has been very hard. The children struggled to fit into the school system here, the cost of living is more than it used to be and life away from the major cities is so soulless. The TV is appalling, with overtly sexualised and/or violent programmes and ads shown at family viewing hours. You would be amazed how much you can end up missing UK things like regional accents, a sense of history and belonging. On a recent trip back, my eight-year-old rolled about laughing in the lush greenness of a local lawn and announced that she loved English grass.

After migrating to Australia in 1995, I moved my family back to the UK 18 months ago so my kids could know their grandparents. Now I feel obliged to stay, but am incredibly homesick for Queensland. Life was simple there. Here, it is harder and very consumption-oriented while people are more tense and noticeably less optimistic. There is also a wider social divide here. It's nice to see old friends and extended family but the sacrifices overall are not worth it. I wish I had the money to take my parents back to Australia. As it is, I am thankful that my Aussie-born kids will be able to return and that I will be able to retire there.

Isobel McRae-Morris, Gloucester, UK

I moved to Australia in 1987, got married and had three children. The lifestyle was great, camping boating almost any weekend that you felt like it, but the downside was that one of our children was diagnosed ASD [autistic spectrum disorder]. We found out how little support there was for him in the Australian education system. Although I have heard things have improved since we left, at the time it was dreadful. After contacting different education authorities around Australia we found that the lack of support was pretty much countrywide. We returned to the UK and were blown away with the support he has received. Now, instead of having to take him to school bawling his eyes out, he now loves his school and is a completely different child. The best move we ever made. We were never homesick and had not thought of returning to the UK before this happened. We do miss the wonderful lifestyle though.

Richard, Penzance, Cornwall, UK

Unfortunately work is the reason we are returning to the UK as we cannot earn enough to pay the mortgage. The cost of living here is scandalous and the wages don't reflect this. I am a fully qualified plumber and I came out here on the "demand list", however no one tells you that your qualifications do not mean anything here and that you have to return to college (and pay a fortune) to restudy your trade. When you are trying to get on your feet in a new country, you can't afford to start studying again because you can't get a job in the area you were accepted into the country for. Shame as we love the landscape. We have loved camping, four-wheel driving, beach visits and BBQs but with no money to pay the mortgage, you can't survive. ...